1. Technical Field of invention
The present invention relates to string spinning toys.
2. Background of Art
A spinning toy made of narrow thin film strips or fins of durable plastic film, taped to a central hard plastic support cylinder with two holes therethrough for spinning on a string is available from Rainbow Products of Trail, Oreg. under the tradename "ORBITER". The ORBITER transforms the nearly straight film strips on both sides of the rigid spinning cylinder into two side lobs by the action of centrifugal force. Another string spinning toy available from Giggles Toy Co., Inc., of MT. Clemens, Mich. is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,790 and tradenamed the "WILD THINGS". It consist of two rigid plastic cylinders with two holes suspended on a string for spinning.
Historically, string spinning toys have been around for a long time. in the nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries, various rigid, hard, materials such as shells, wood, bones, metals, ceramics, ivory, glass, rigid plastics, ect were used to make buttons. The large buttons with their well placed center holes 6 made them ideal for spinning on strings. In the Eighteen century, large copper pennies were commonly use by children for spinning on a string. These were called "humdingers". The word "humdinger" has since lost its meaning. Today, the word refers to anything that is extraordinary.
It is certain that string spinning toys date back to much earlier times and were enjoyed by many cultures, possibly before recorded history. From the earliest tires to the present, all known string spinning toys utilize a hard structural support with bores or holes. One major disadvantage of spinning toys with hard surfaces is that the string breaks often and requires replacing. No prior art is known to exist that require solutions to problems which are only inherent and unique to the string spinning toys of the present invention.